"Boast" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... their lustre was still variously glittering all over the temple. Then this wandering light being darted on the polished marble and agate with which all the inside of the temple was pargetted, our eyes were entertained with a sight of all the admirable colours which the rainbow can boast when the sun darts his fiery rays ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais
... horned bloody moon, And call the sun's white horses back[237] at noon. Snakes leap by verse from caves of broken mountains,[238] And turned streams run backward to their fountains. Verses ope doors; and locks put in the post, Although of oak, to yield to verses boast. What helps it me of fierce Achill to sing? What good to me will either Ajax bring? 30 Or he who warred and wandered twenty year? Or woful Hector whom wild jades did tear? But when I praise a pretty wench's face, She in requital doth me oft embrace. A great reward! ...
— The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Christopher Marlowe
... no little excitement in the club in relation to the Maud. Donald had confidently asserted his belief, weeks before, that she would outsail the Skylark, not as a mere boast, but as a matter of business. His father had made an improvement upon the model of the Sea Foam, which he was reasonably certain would give her the advantage. The young boat-builder had also remedied a slight defect in the arrangement of the ...
— The Yacht Club - or The Young Boat-Builder • Oliver Optic
... and rags unfold, * Dearer than tribe and kith and kin I hold; Than crowned head, or deputy Marwan, * Or all who boast of silver ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 7 • Richard F. Burton
... more in the ivy-covered lodge. By that time Miss Rockett had all but recovered her self-respect, and was so busy in her secretaryship that she could only scribble a line of congratulation. She felt that she had done rather a meritorious thing, but, for the first time in her life, did not care to boast of it. ...
— The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories • George Gissing
... conscience. You have seen how badly I behaved, or tended to behave in the past, and lost no friends by it. In a long life of dealing in various kinds of property, including horse-trading, very few people have ever got the best of me, and everybody knows that this is less a boast than a confession; and yet, this one good act of standing by this poor girl in her dreadful plight degraded me more in the minds of the community than all the spavins, thorough-pins, poll-evils and the like I ever ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick
... all those qualities which were lacking in me. He was not only thoroughly proficient in the grammar of his mother tongue (German), but also in the grammar of the classical tongues; and, if I am not mistaken, in French also. He had a knowledge of geography far beyond anything I could boast, was acquainted with history, knew arithmetic, possessed some familiarity with botany,—much greater, indeed, than I suspected. And what was worth more than all this, he was full of vigour in mind, heart, and life. Therefore the school was every ...
— Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel • Friedrich Froebel
... He was laughed at by the boys of this University, because, as they said, he himself looked like a little wizard." Small as might be his stature, and questionable the shape in which he appeared, he might still have taken up the boast of the author of the Religio Medici: "Men that look upon my outside do err in my altitude, for I am above Atlas's shoulders." None but a large-souled and kindly-affectioned man, whose intellect was as comprehensive as his feelings were benevolent, could have produced the excellent little treatise ...
— Discovery of Witches - The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster • Thomas Potts
... have deserved that character of the marchioness,' said the count with a smile, 'but that heart must be either fickle or insensible in an uncommon degree, which can boast of freedom in the presence of lady Julia.' The marchioness, mortified by the whole conversation, now felt the full force of Vereza's reply, which she imagined ...
— A Sicilian Romance • Ann Radcliffe
... be worth while. She'll do something— that girl. When you are an insignificant old woman, you may be proud to boast that you used to sit at the very table on which her first English ...
— The Independence of Claire • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... mill-buildings stood, gorgeous in many-coloured tiles; round the dwelling-house, or in a large wired enclosure close by. His master, the Over-Lord, bred dogs of his kind for the nonce, not necessarily for profit, but because, with a great heart for dogs, he chose to, claiming indeed the proud boast that not a single dog of his class walked these Islands that was not of his strain—and claiming ...
— 'Murphy' - A Message to Dog Lovers • Major Gambier-Parry
... gay Spaniards, Which make so great a boast O? Oh, they shall eat the grey-goose feather, And we shall eat ...
— A Mother's List of Books for Children • Gertrude Weld Arnold
... soil. Those from North Carolina and South Carolina preferred Tennessee, and what was then known as Upper Georgia, but now as Middle Georgia; yet there was a sprinkling here and there throughout Georgia from Virginia. Many of these became leading men in the State, and their descendants still boast of their origin, and in plenary pride point to such men as William H. Crawford and Peter Early as shining evidences of the ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks
... for an idle boast Of victory o'er another; But, while you strive your uttermost, Deal fairly with a brother. Whate'er your station, do your best, And, hold your purpose ever; And, if you fail to beat the rest, 'Tis better ...
— Sanders' Union Fourth Reader • Charles W. Sanders
... took his lyre, and either spun a yarn about Vinland such as would smash the "Telegraph," or else sung about "that sea-snake tremendous curled, whose girth encircles half the world." It is wonderful, it is awful, to consider how true we remain to the traditions of the older time. The French boast that they invented the canard. Let them boast. They also invented the shirt-collar; but hoary legends say that an Englishman invented the shirt for it, as well as the art of washing it. What the shirt is to the collar, that ...
— The Gypsies • Charles G. Leland
... narrowness of view, or illiberality of sentiment—but because I believe that our admirable Constitution, on principles more exalted and under sanctions more holy than those which Owenism or Socialism can boast, proclaims between men of all classes and degrees in the body politic a sacred bond of brotherhood in the recognition of a common warfare here, and a common hope hereafter. I am a Conservative, not because I am adverse to improvement, not because I am unwilling to repair ...
— Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin • James, Eighth Earl of Elgin
... the scene of much of his story of "Barnaby Rudge." But Dickens, with his eye for the beautiful and with his marvelous intuition for interesting situations, was drawn to the village by its unusual charm. Few other places can boast of such endorsement as he gave in a letter to his friend, Forster, when he wrote: "Chigwell, my dear fellow, is the greatest place in the world. Name your day for going. Such a delicious old inn facing the church; such ...
— British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car - Being A Record Of A Five Thousand Mile Tour In England, - Wales And Scotland • Thomas D. Murphy
... attendance was left to the inmates as a voluntary matter, and yet some ninety males attended this, about three-fourths of the whole company from which the audience was usually drawn,—a much larger percentage probably than any outside congregation can boast of. ...
— The Prison Chaplaincy, And Its Experiences • Hosea Quinby
... the Jew whom Celsus introduces shuts up an argument in this manner:—"these things then we have alleged to you out of your own writings, not needing any other weapons." (Lardner, vol. ii. p. 276.) It is manifest that this boast proceeds upon the supposition that the books over which the writer affects to triumph possessed an authority by which Christians ...
— Evidences of Christianity • William Paley
... by. Cupid's arrow—the naive Greek equivalent of the medieval love-philter—why Pallas' body is not merely laid on the funeral pyre with the traditional wailing, why Turnus does not meet his foe with an Homeric boast. That Vergil has penetrated a richer vein of sentiment, that he has learned to regard passion as something more than an accident, to sacrifice mere logic of form for fragments of vital emotion and flashes of new scenery, and finally that he enriched the Latin vocabulary ...
— Vergil - A Biography • Tenney Frank
... probably an Austrian, Whom these unsettled times forbid to boast His lineage on these wild and dangerous frontiers, Where the name of his country is abhorred. [Aloud to FRITZ and IDENSTEIN. So, sirs! how have ye sped in ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron
... at the Wardhouse no trecherie, inuasion, or ether peril of molestation be done or procured to be attempted to our ships by any kings, princes, or companies, that do mislike this new found trade by seas to Russia, or would let and hinder the same, where of no small boast hath bene made; which giueth occasion of more circumspection ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, • Richard Hakluyt
... have become stronger by robbing and killing weaker nations, and the British Government for a thousand years—particularly from the bloody reigns of Elizabeth and Oliver Cromwell—can boast that it has never failed to rob and kill the weak, while truckling and fawning at the feet of Russia and the Republic of the United States, which will soon extend from Bering Sea and Baffin's Bay to the Isthmus of Panama—absorbing Canada, Cuba, Mexico ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
... the hotel was rather a primitive place, and did not boast a bath-room, nor even a good tub or a large basin, and the young fellow had to sigh and make believe with a sponge before dressing hurriedly and going out to wait for the sun's rising and the first ...
— Old Gold - The Cruise of the "Jason" Brig • George Manville Fenn
... same floor; being, in fact, the back parlour; and had, as Mrs Todgers said, the great advantage (in London) of not being overlooked; as they would see when the fog cleared off. Nor was this a vainglorious boast, for it commanded at a perspective of two feet, a brown wall with a black cistern on the top. The sleeping apartment designed for the young ladies was approached from this chamber by a mightily convenient little door, which would only open when ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens
... We boast our sense of delicacy, and perhaps rightly, in view of our superiority over other nations in this particular; yet we permit the Monkey to exhibit revolting nakedness, and we hardly heed the omission! ...
— On Something • H. Belloc
... organized and much longer in operation. He spies also on friend and neutral, while we only use this back-door method of gleaning information from an enemy. The word, too, has associations that are ugly, and I fancy that our spies do not boast of their service, but spy-hunting is a service that has no taint, and there is much satisfaction both to the conscience and intellect in routing out the underground worker who, for "filthy lucre," would sell the blood of his fellow ...
— "Over There" with the Australians • R. Hugh Knyvett
... dressed in my best clothes, and though they were made by a provincial tailor, Parkville was progressive enough to boast of a genuine artist in this line. There was nothing about my companion, any more than myself, to attract attention. Doubtless most of the people thought we were brother and sister, or that some elderly gentleman and lady, seated in another part of the car, ...
— Seek and Find - or The Adventures of a Smart Boy • Oliver Optic
... she cannot scream, and to take her down to a secluded place, and there to lay on the leather heartily, with or without first removing the inner garment. Who is to know, or to tell? We are not Russians, to boast ...
— The Subterranean Brotherhood • Julian Hawthorne
... woman in Rome, as she was undeniably the most remarkable in many other ways. She was not above taking an interest in dress, and her old husband had an admirable taste; moreover, he took a vast pride in her appearance, and if she had looked a whit less superior to other women, his smiling boast that she was above suspicion would have ...
— Saracinesca • F. Marion Crawford
... nature persuades some to sin under any conditions, and there is no device for controlling it when it has once started toward any goal. What seems good to persons,—not to rehearse the vices of the masses,—at once induces very many of them to do wrong. [-17-] The boast of birth and pride of wealth, greatness of honor, audacity founded on bravery, and conceit due to authority, bring shipwreck to not a few. There is no making nobility ignoble, bravery cowardly, or prudence foolish: it is impossible. ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. 4 • Cassius Dio
... they can muster. Just as in our country rural prosperity is evinced by the upkeep of fences and buildings, the spic and span new paint, and the garish furnishings, here it is written in the number of servants and hangers-on. The great foreign trading firms like to boast of the tremendous length of their pay rolls. They would rather employ four hundred underworked mediocrities at twenty pesos a month than half a hundred abilities at four times that amount. The land-holders like to think of the mouths they are responsible for feeding ...
— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee
... wasn't. Sam, bein' so heavy, had stopped quicker an' hit in shallow water near the shore, but, as luck would have it, the bottom was soft an' he had come down feet foremost, an' a broken leg an' some bad bruises were all he could boast of. Lizzie was in hysterics, but seemed to be unhurt. Dan an' I got 'em out on the shore, an' left 'em cryin' side by side, an' scrambled up the bank to find Aleck. He had aimed too low an' hit the wall, an' was stunned, an' apparently, for the time, ...
— Keeping up with Lizzie • Irving Bacheller
... if we love God, we shall love our neighbour, and perform the duties which are required at our hands, to which we are exhorted, 1 Cor. xv. 4, 5; Ephes. iv.; Colos. iii.; Rom. xii. We shall not be envious or puffed up, or boast, disdain, think evil, or be provoked to anger, "but suffer all things; endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." Forbear one another, forgive one another, clothe the naked, visit the sick, ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... difference to we. He's run it the last ten year and more, and run it hard, I tell 'ee that. Doant yue go for to get the wrong side o' Spencer Curtis, I warns 'ee. George Standing afore 'e worn't much to boast on, but Spencer Curtis ...
— Antony Gray,—Gardener • Leslie Moore
... the birds and children of coming generations. Half the houses are still largely built of wood from the forest of olden times that has now disappeared; and ancient bow-windows jut out over the side causeways. Some of the old exclusive mansions continue to boast in a breastwork of stone pillars linked together by chains of iron, intended as a defence against impertinent intruders, but more often serving as safe swinging-places for the young children sent to play in the ...
— Brought Home • Hesba Stretton
... log, on which lay some pewter dishes containing the remains of he last family meal. One or two three-legged stools made up the rest of the furniture, except for the trunk in the corner and the bed. This bed was Tom Linkhorn's pride, which he used to boast about to his friends, for he was a tolerable carpenter. It was made of plank stuck between the logs of the wall, and supported at the other end by crotched sticks. By way of a curtain top a hickory post had been sunk in ...
— The Path of the King • John Buchan
... With love affected, Nor treat with virtuous scorn The well connected. High rank involves no shame - We boast an equal claim With him of humble name To be respected! Blue blood! Blue blood! When virtuous love is sought, Thy power is naught, Though dating from ...
— Songs of a Savoyard • W. S. Gilbert
... Duff-Whalley, but few, if any, withstood her advances. It was easier to give in and be on calling and dining terms than to repulse a woman who never noticed a snub, and who would never admit the possibility that she might not be wanted. So Mrs. Duff-Whalley could boast with some degree of truth that she knew "everybody," and entertained at The Towers "very nearly the ...
— Penny Plain • Anna Buchan (writing as O. Douglas)
... represent the quarry in which he dug and the food on which he fed. Almost alone among novelists Scott actually preferred those parts of his historical novels which he had not invented himself. He exults when he can boast in an eager note that he has stolen some saying from history. Thus The Tales of a Grandfather, though small, is in some sense the frame of all the Waverley novels. We realise that all Scott's novels are ...
— Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens • G. K. Chesterton
... growing, and on the accession of Dusan to Servia, the district of the Zeta fell to the Balsic, who proved themselves to be a strong and competent race of rulers. They increased their territories to such an extent that, at the time of the battle of Kossovo, they could boast to ruling over all the land from Ragusa to the mouth of the Drin, including the present West Montenegro and Southern Hercegovina, with Skodra as the capital. After the overthrow of the great Servian Empire on the field of Kossovo, Montenegro became entirely ...
— The Land of the Black Mountain - The Adventures of Two Englishmen in Montenegro • Reginald Wyon
... host hospitably, "ain't much to boast of in the way of furniture, but it's the best I can do. Can't expect to find a Waldorf Hotel ...
— The Girl Aviators' Sky Cruise • Margaret Burnham
... families of the community; and lastly the Montagu Samuels with the brother, Percy Saville, who both go only to the best houses. Is there any other house, where the company is so exclusively Jewish, that could boast ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... She must have had good teaching at her convent; for she sings splendidly and is a pretty fair linguist, too. I tried her in English, however, and found her so uncertain that my somewhat limited conversation with her was carried on in French. My French is nothing to boast of, but ...
— A Beautiful Alien • Julia Magruder
... Clara was the eighth to be established. It was founded on January 12, 1777. The original lines of this once beautiful Mission are almost entirely changed but like all its sister missions it still retains much of its dear old atmosphere, and can boast of the tomb of Father Magin Catala who died there in 1836 "in the odor of sanctity." Mission Santa Clara was founded by Father Tomas de la Pena y Saradia; and its history is fascinating and romantic. The ...
— Chimes of Mission Bells • Maria Antonia Field
... respects the ancients were in advance of us, especially in the arts, and we can not boast of superiority in either letters or philosophy. "The gentlemen of modern materialistic schools do not compare favorably with Plato and Cicero in the elevation and reverence of their opinions." "Science has certainly made some advancement, but where is the warrant for the boasting" ...
— The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume 1, January, 1880 • Various
... statue that enchants the world, So, bending, tries to vail the matchless boast— The mingled ...
— Searchlights on Health - The Science of Eugenics • B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols
... "it appears from all the books that meanwhile the Americans' great boast was that they differed from all other and former nations in that they were free and equal. One is constantly coming upon this phrase in the literature of the day. Now, you have made it clear that they ...
— Equality • Edward Bellamy
... in your sight in his natural form." "Daughter," said the sultan, "I did not believe you to have understood so much." "Sir," replied the princess, "these things are curious and worth knowing; but I think I ought not to boast of them." "Since it is so," said the sultan, "you can dispel the prince's enchantment." "Yes, sir," said the princess, "I can restore him to his original shape." "Do it then," said the sultan, "you cannot do me a ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 1 • Anon.
... in the service of the crown prince, for it was by my especial, earnest recommendation that his highness called him to Berlin from the exchequer of Prince Henry at Rheinsberg, that he might give him lectures in politics and other branches of administration, I do not say it to boast, although I have always regarded it as an honor to have opened the way to a distinguished man, to have his great talents properly valued. I only say it to prove my high appreciation of dear brother Wollner, and to defend ...
— Old Fritz and the New Era • Louise Muhlbach
... by artifice endeavour to acquire or preserve the reputation of abilities or ingenuity, while they abound in the words of others, have little cause to boast of their own inventions. For the composers of that polished language, in which such various cases as occur in the great body of law are treated with such an appropriate elegance of style, must ever stand ...
— The Itinerary of Archibishop Baldwin through Wales • Giraldus Cambrensis
... than by the benefits he had conferred; and to acknowledge less obligation to a well-informed and well-intentioned progenitor than to a lawless and ferocious barbarian. Would stocks and stumps, if they could utter words, utter such gross stupidity? Would the apple boast of his crab origin, or the peach of his prune? Hardly any man is ashamed of being inferior to his ancestors, although it is the very thing at which the great should blush, if, indeed, the great in general descended from the worthy. I did expect to see the day, and although ...
— Citation and Examination of William Shakspeare • Walter Savage Landor
... cannon are serviceable only against masses, and, for the most part, require a series of trials to get the range, which may be constantly shifting. The telescope-rifle is a field-piece possessing such precision and range as no other weapon can boast, and provided with an instrument which reduces the art of aiming to a point of mathematical certainty,—and all within such a compass of size and weight that every man of a company can manage one with nearly the rapidity and with ten times the efficiency ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IX., March, 1862., No. LIII. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics, • Various
... of historied claim, Who boast of the heritage shrined in each name— Sting their souls to the quick, till they shrink from the shame Which dishonors the names and the past of their boast; Even now they may win the best guerdon of fame, And retrieve the bright ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various
... like one of his uncles in the neighbouring town of Towcester. When twelve years of age, with his uncle there, he might have formed one of the crowd which listened to John Wesley, who, in 1773 and then aged seventy, visited the prosperous posting town. Paulerspury could indeed boast of one son, Edward Bernard, D.D., who, two centuries before, had made for himself a name in Oxford, where he was Savilian Professor of Astronomy. But Carey was not a Scotsman, and therefore the ...
— The Life of William Carey • George Smith
... be the proud boast that every Englishman's home was his castle. But to-day it is an anachronism. The Ghetto folk have no homes. They do not know the significance and the sacredness of home life. Even the municipal dwellings, where live the better-class workers, are ...
— The People of the Abyss • Jack London
... The boast of England is her colonies, yet the statesmen of Britain at that time knew little, and, in all probability, cared less, about the hardships, dangers and perils which their countrymen were enduring while laying the foundations of a ...
— Young Lion of the Woods - A Story of Early Colonial Days • Thomas Barlow Smith
... and perch on these Your most unworthy Father's knees, And try and tell him—Can you? Are Punch and Judy bits of wood? Does Dolly boast of ancient blood, Or is it only ...
— London Lyrics • Frederick Locker
... do for sentimental common people. A musketeer on duty, a young girl in a convent, may exchange letters with their lovers once a day, perhaps, from the top of a ladder, or through a hole in the wall. A letter contains all the poetry their poor little hearts have to boast of. But the cases we have in hand require to be dealt ...
— The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three - Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" • Alexandre Dumas
... vehicles could scarcely pass abreast, and which serried shops lined with gaudy displays? There was neither space, nor far horizon, nor refreshing greenery such as the fashionable drives of Paris could boast! Nothing but jostling, crowding, and stifling on the little footways under the narrow strip of sky. And although Dario named the pompous and historical palaces, Bonaparte, Doria, Odescalchi, Sciarra, and Chigi; although he pointed out the column of Marcus Aurelius ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... Boast, Britain, of thy glorious Guests; Peace, Wealth, and Commerce, all thine own: Still on contented Labour rests The basis of a lasting Throne. Shout, Poverty! 'tis Heaven that saves; Protected Wealth, the chorus raise: Ruler ...
— Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs • Robert Bloomfield
... beyond doubt, he made sure, it was his own boast made to his father which had been passed on to tell the sham burglar where to look ...
— The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush • Francis Lynde
... wearing himself out under the impulse of fear, in cultivating their fields and producing their luxuries! Encouragement and support do they derive from James, in maintaining the "peculiar institution" which they call patriarchal, and boast of as the "corner-stone" of ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... eyes straight to the front, and paid no attention to the respectful greetings of those of the strikers who saluted him, touching their hats. There were many among them whose hearts sank at this attitude in a man who had made it his boast that he knew every hand in his mills by sight, and who, in the past, had had a nod or a friendly word for each and all of them. For the first time a premonition settled upon them of what this strike, which had been welcomed principally for novelty's sake, might mean. It was the first the Rathbawne ...
— The Lieutenant-Governor • Guy Wetmore Carryl
... of this period could not boast of any such great figures as the preceding period, it had, nevertheless, another camp besides that of the "pure art" advocates whom we have just noticed. At the head of the second group, which clung to the aesthetic doctrine that regarded every-day life as the best ...
— A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections • Isabel Florence Hapgood
... they rendered the Assembly's operations of no avail by means of their influence in the Legislative Council. They had none of the graceful suavity of the Lower Canadian seigneurs. Nor could they boast of the superiority derived from a liberal education. Many of them—even including some of those who held high public offices—were so illiterate that they were unable to write a simple business letter without committing errors of orthography of ...
— The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, Volume 1 • John Charles Dent
... land! and you, proud castles! say (Where grandsire,[1] father,[2] and three brothers[3] lay, Who each, in turn, the crown imperial wore), Me will you own, your daughter whom you bore? Me, once your greatest boast and chiefest pride, By Bourbon and Lorraine,[4] when sought a bride; Now widowed wife,[5] a queen without a throne, Midst rocks and mountains[6] wander I alone. Nor yet hath Fortune vented all her spite, But sets one up,[7] ...
— Memoirs And Historical Chronicles Of The Courts Of Europe - Marguerite de Valois, Madame de Pompadour, and Catherine de Medici • Various
... I may seem to boast; but, by the grace of God, I do not boast in thus speaking. From my inmost soul I do ascribe it to God alone that he has enabled me to trust in him, and that hitherto he has not suffered my confidence in ...
— The Life of Trust: Being a Narrative of the Lord's Dealings With George Mueller • George Mueller
... skeptic concerning the truth of ghost tales as any man you are likely to meet; only I am what I might term an unprejudiced skeptic. I am not given to either believing or disbelieving things 'on principle,' as I have found many idiots prone to be, and what is more, some of them not ashamed to boast of the insane fact. I view all reported 'hauntings' as unproven until I have examined into them, and I am bound to admit that ninety-nine cases in a hundred turn out to be sheer bosh and fancy. But the hundredth! Well, ...
— Carnacki, The Ghost Finder • William Hope Hodgson
... Freiherr out of this suspicion against his brother, in which, of course, not being initiated into the more circumstantial details of the disagreement, he could only appeal to broad and somewhat superficial moral principles, he yet could not boast of the smallest success. The Freiherr commissioned him to treat with his hostile and avaricious brother Hubert. V—— proceeded to do so with all the circumspection he was master of, and was not a little gratified when Hubert at length declared, "Be ...
— Weird Tales. Vol. I • E. T. A. Hoffmann
... trigger projecting; and in the afternoon I would join the group sitting in front of the chemist's, which, for some reason or other, is generally a sort of open-air club in a small Neapolitan town, or stroll into the single modest cafe of which it might possibly boast, and toy abstractedly with the trigger. This, together with my personal appearance—for do what I would, I could never make myself look like a Neapolitan—would be certain to attract attention, and some one bolder than the rest would ...
— Fashionable Philosophy - and Other Sketches • Laurence Oliphant
... their golden wedding, mes vieux! It will be very fine. Very fine indeed, for all the children and grandchildren," he glanced slily at Brigit, who clasped her hands lightly on her lap, "will be there, and we shall eat until we can eat no more, and tell each other old tales, and boast about our successes in life—ah, it ...
— The Halo • Bettina von Hutten
... her true parentage to her husband. In a union so much beneath her birth, she had desired to conceal from all her connections the fall of the once-honoured heiress. She had descended, in search of peace, to obscurity; but her pride revolted from the thought that her low-born husband might boast of her connections and parade her descent to his level. Fortunately, as she thought, she received Ardworth before he was admitted to her husband, who now, growing feebler and feebler, usually kept ...
— Lucretia, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... whatever ruins may be preserved of the great cities of yore. Their number formed no objection, for it was well known how populous the valley had been in the days of its splendor, and that, besides several famous cities, it could boast no end of smaller ones, often separated from each other by a distance of only a few miles. The long low mounds were rightly supposed to represent the ancient walls, and the higher and vaster ones to have ...
— Chaldea - From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria • Znade A. Ragozin
... the welfare of our beloved island—this great and free and happy country, whose powers and resources are, I sincerely believe, illimitable—I value that noble independence which is an Englishman's proudest boast, and which I fondly hope to bequeath to my children, untarnished and unsullied. Actuated by no personal motives, but moved only by high and great constitutional considerations; which I will not attempt to explain, for they are really beneath the comprehension of those who have not made ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens
... false, yet always true, I'm still the same—but ever now. Lifeless, life's perfect form I wear, Can show a nose, eye, tongue, or ear, Yet neither smell, see, taste, nor hear. All shapes and features I can boast, No flesh, no bones, no blood-no ghost: All colors, without paint, put on, And change, like the chameleon. Swiftly I come, and enter there, Where not a chink lets in the air; Like thought, I'm in a moment gone, Nor can ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton
... hands bestow; 25 And yours the love that kings delight to know. Yet think not these, all beauteous as they are, The best kind blessings heaven can grant the fair! Who trust alone in beauty's feeble ray Boast but the worth[11] Balsora's pearls display: 30 Drawn from the deep we own their surface bright, But, dark within, they drink no lustrous light: Such are the maids, and such the charms they boast, By sense unaided, or to virtue ...
— The Poetical Works of William Collins - With a Memoir • William Collins
... versus collar-bone breathing, the folly of tight-lacing, or, indeed, of in any way interfering with the freedom of the waist, will be at once apparent. We pride ourselves upon our civilization; we make a boast of living in the age of science; physiology is now taught, or at least talked of, in almost every school; the laws of health are proclaimed in lectures and lessons innumerable all over the country, and we laugh at barbarous customs of other nations, ...
— The Mechanism of the Human Voice • Emil Behnke
... little pincushiony woman, with bunched-up gray curls, which she wore in defiance of all prevailing fashions, and of which she was secretly very proud;. her complexion was still as clear and pink as a girl's; and her somewhat wide mouth was garnished by the whitest of teeth. It was Dawson's boast that she had never sat in a dentist's chair in ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... fair type of the money-getter. Furthermore, what he had built had been raised by his own hands unaided; he was a self-made man, whose one boast was that he owed nothing to any one, not even so little as a debt of gratitude. One realized the fact, too, in the way he carried on his affairs; for in his business he was alert and determined, implacably pursuing his money-making as if it were a warfare, ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine
... bragging about their dexterity, prostitutes vaunting their depravity, or murderers boasting of their cruelty. This surprises us only because the circle, the atmosphere in which these people live, is limited, and we are outside it. But can we not observe the same phenomenon when the rich boast of their wealth, i.e., robbery; the commanders in the army pride themselves on victories, i.e., murder; and those in high places vaunt their power, i.e., violence? We do not see the perversion in the views of life held by these people, only ...
— Resurrection • Count Leo Tolstoy
... included in the list of the wonders of the world. It is certainly unique in every respect, and no other nation, modern or ancient, has ever been able to boast of a recreation ground and park provided by nature and supplied with such magnificent and extraordinary attractions and peculiarities. It is a park upon a mountain, being more than 10,000 feet ...
— My Native Land • James Cox
... them—nay, it is surprising how many of this illustrious family have peopled the world, and they can boast of many authors' names which figure on their genealogical tree—men who might have lived happy, contented, and useful lives were it not for their insane cacoethes scribendi. And hereby they show their folly. If only they had been content to write plain and ordinary commonplaces which every ...
— Books Fatal to Their Authors • P. H. Ditchfield
... he put in practice to bring the devil before him, and taking his way to a thick wood near to Wittenburg, called in the German tongue, Spisser Holt, that is in English, the Spisser's Wood, as Faustus would oftentimes boast of it among the crew, being in jollity, he came into the wood one evening into the cross-way, where he made with a wand a circle in the dust, and within that many more circles and characters; and thus he past away the time until it ...
— Mediaeval Tales • Various
... mair fine, Woo in words mair saft than mine; Lowland lads hae mair of art, A' my boast 's an honest heart, Whilk shall ever be my pride;— O, row ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various
... her brief days of triumph. And dominating the scene is the imposing figure of the Grand Monarque. Louis haunts his great creation; Louis in his prime, the admired and feared of Europe, the incarnation of kingship; Louis surrounded by his gay and brilliant court, all eager to echo his historic boast, to sink in their master the last traces ...
— History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 • F. A. M. Mignet
... been lost, or forgot, in a sobriquet which fitted him perfectly, and which he had richly earned in a long career as a soldier. They called him "Bullet Stopper," "Balle-Arretante," the curious compound ran in French, and the soldiers clipped it and condensed it into "Bal-Arret!" He used to boast that he had been wounded in every country in Europe and in Asia and Africa as well. He had been hit more times than any soldier high or low in the army. He had distinguished himself by valor, and, but for his humble extraction ...
— The Eagle of the Empire - A Story of Waterloo • Cyrus Townsend Brady
... to him of certain small land-owners, who having nothing but their gentle birth to boast of, and being as poor as Job, yet set up as great noblemen, and even as princes, boasting of their high birth, of their genealogy, and of the glorious deeds of their ancestors. I quoted the saying of the wise man, that he hated, among other things, ...
— The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales • Jean Pierre Camus
... upon the evening of the 9th of December 1850, was lying in the Colombo Roads, getting up her steam as speedily as possible, while I was uneasily perambulating the wooden jetty, which is all the little harbour can boast in the shape of a pier, endeavouring to induce some apathetic boatmen to row me over the bar, a pull of three miles, against a stiff breeze. It was bright moonlight, and the fire from the funnel of the old ship seemed rushing ...
— A Journey to Katmandu • Laurence Oliphant
... second letter was fully as surprising as the first. It was from another of Mr. Winthrop's friends, who had frequented our hotel in New York. I recalled his face readily, and the impression his manners and conversation had made on my mind. He had fewer years to boast than Mr. Bovyer, but more good looks. I finished his letter, and, still holding it in my hand, unconsciously fell to recalling more distinctly my half-forgotten impressions of his personality. I remembered he could say brilliant things in an off-hand ...
— Medoline Selwyn's Work • Mrs. J. J. Colter
... to Rouen, and finally in 1594 to Lisbon. Here they remained, always recruiting their numbers from England, till 1861, when they returned to England. Syon House is now established at Chudleigh in Devon, the only English community that can boast an unbroken conventual existence since pre-Reformation times. Some six other Bridgittine convents exist on the Continent, but the order is ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various
... farther with his 'sabots' than yours with their cast-iron contrivances that turn out mass books all day long," he would boast. "He is trying to find out a secret that will lick all the printing ...
— Eve and David • Honore de Balzac
... vats, he thought over a plan that had come to his racing mind. It wasn't much of a plan, and it seemed utterly futile in the face of the odds against him. But he had boasted, before starting this mad adventure, that Man's wits were superior to any bug's. It was time now to see if his boast had been an ...
— The Raid on the Termites • Paul Ernst
... a young writer, painter, or sculptor of French blood, who is not risking his life for his country. Can we make the same proud boast? ...
— The Red Horizon • Patrick MacGill
... Matthews was professor "in the first theological seminary of which New York could boast." ...
— The Kirk on Rutgers Farm • Frederick Bruckbauer
... office, abstained from quartering a horde of connections on the Treasury, refused to uphold rogues in high places, and had too just a conception of the dignity of a chief magistrate to accept presents. It may be said that these are humble qualities for a citizen to boast the possession of by a President of the United States. As well claim respect for a woman of one's family on the ground that she has preserved her virtue. Yet all whose eyes were not blinded by partisanship, whose manhood was ...
— Destruction and Reconstruction: - Personal Experiences of the Late War • Richard Taylor
... fascination, the tables were turned and he became the slave—till he grew tired. He not only scorned her, but he deserted her. Though a Manchu maid, the Revolution played into her tapering fingers the opportunity for the sweetest revenge that ever tempted an almond-eyed beauty. It had been the proud boast of her officer master that he could resist any attacking party and hold the City Royal for the Manchus. Alas! he reckoned without a woman. She knew a man outside the city walls—a leader of an organization—half soldiery, ...
— The Lady and Sada San - A Sequel to The Lady of the Decoration • Frances Little
... answer; "but my home is some way to the northward, on the island of Whalsey. There you have it on your chart. Those who live on it boast that it is the finest of the outlying islands; and well I know that such a castle as we have is not to be ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston
... will be worth our observation to take notice that men, erroneous men, do not put these limits so commonly to the Father and his love, as [to] the Son and his. Hence you have some that boast that God can save some who have not the knowledge of the person of the mediator Jesus Christ the righteous; as the heathens that have, and still do make a great improvement of the law and light of nature: crying out with disdain against the narrowness, rigidness, ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... my name. What strength of prepossession the master must have had to make the feathered pupil repeat the sound of 'Vesta,' and call me 'sweet!' What resources, too, without the use of money or social aids! He knows the story of our English beginning, while we make it an idle boast; but to him Cromwell and Milton, Raleigh and Vane, are men of to-day. Ah!" Vesta thought, "I think I see now one of those Puritans in my husband, of whom I have heard as sprinkled through Virginia. We are the Cavaliers. There is the Roundhead, ...
— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend
... makes him, with all his foibles, so lovable. 'They' must excuse him if he now took his departure; for he had arrived at an age to feel the length of a long day—even of a happy summer's day such as this had been. To be innocently happy—that had used to be the boast of England, of "Merry England "; and he had ever prized happy living faces in Kirris-vean above the ancestral portraits—not all happy, if one might judge from their expressions—hanging on his walls at home.' (Prolonged applause greeted this; and deservedly, for he spoke ...
— Corporal Sam and Other Stories • A. T. Quiller-Couch
... an easy boast, Lady Ysolinde!" I answered, thinking to taunt her, that she might reveal whether indeed she had the ...
— Red Axe • Samuel Rutherford Crockett
... at the court of Charles, the Roman emperor. King Kazimierz went to pay him a visit and with him went many courtiers. Among these courtiers was Staszko Ciolek, son of Wojewoda[34] Andrzej, who was noted for his strength. The emperor began to boast that he had a Czech who could strangle a bear. They had an exhibition and the Czech strangled two bears in succession. Our king not wishing to be outdone, said: 'But be cannot overcome my Ciolek.' They agreed that they should fight in three days' time. Many ladies and famous knights ...
— The Knights of the Cross • Henryk Sienkiewicz
... and St. John was "confined to foreign climates" for very sufficient reasons. Any such roll-call of friends must show melancholy gaps, and sometimes the gaps are more significant than the names. Yet Pope could boast of a numerous body of men, many of them of high distinction, who were ready to give him a warm welcome. There were, indeed, few eminent persons of the time, either in the political or literary worlds, with whom this sensitive and restless little invalid did not come into contact, hostile or friendly, ...
— Alexander Pope - English Men of Letters Series • Leslie Stephen
... remains is at our pride, To value that which all wise men deride. For Englishmen to boast of generation Cancels their knowledge, and lampoons the nation. A true-born Englishman's a contradiction, In speech an irony, in fact a fiction; A banter made to be a test of fools, Which those that use it justly ridicules; A ...
— English Poets of the Eighteenth Century • Selected and Edited with an Introduction by Ernest Bernbaum
... of Ages, was the Condition, and such at length the Fate of this Kingdom, destroyed after a longer Continuance than any other can boast, by the Abuse of its own Powers; a sure Argument that all created Beings, all sublunary Institutions, however wisely composed, in the very Essence of their Creation, and in the very Rudiments of ...
— An Essay on the Antient and Modern State of Ireland • Henry Brooke
... floated before her with point after point of entrancing loveliness, old history, present luxury, hereditary rank and splendour, and modern power. It was like nothing in Eleanor's own home. Her father, though a comfortable country gentleman, boasted nothing and had nothing to boast in the way of ancestry, beyond a respectable descent of several generations. His means, though ample enough for comfort and reasonable indulgence, could make no pretensions to more. And Ivy Lodge was indeed a pleasant ...
— The Old Helmet, Volume I • Susan Warner
... that hostile flood was always ready to press in through an unguarded spot on the coast. The sea wolves and robbers from Norway came devouring, pillaging, and ravaging, and then away again to their own homes or lairs. Their boast was that they "scorned to earn by sweat what they might win by blood." But the Northmen from Denmark were of a different sort. They were looking for permanent conquest, and had dreams of Empire, and, in fact, had had more or less of a grasp upon English ...
— The Evolution of an Empire • Mary Parmele
... play, sir!" he said unhesitatingly. "The Baron was a strong healthy man who lived frugally, and though he dealt in millions of francs, yet he was most quiet in his habits, and his boast was that he was never out of bed after half-past ten. Though very rich he devoted nearly half his income yearly to charitable institutions. I know the extent of his contributions to the needy, for I have often ...
— The Stretton Street Affair • William Le Queux
... 4th, we succeeded in getting away in our little boat of about four tons burthen, in which my numerous boxes were with difficulty packed so as to leave sleeping and cooling room. The craft could not boast an ounce of iron or a foot of rope in any part of its construction, nor a morsel of pitch or paint in its decoration. The planks were fastened together in the usual ingenious way with pegs and rattans. The ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume II. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace
... hard and blacker than jet. She did not scream or waver. Most unwomanly, she cried out one oath—the Kid's own favorite oath—and in his own deep voice; and then while the Small Hours Social Club went frantically to pieces, she made good her boast to Tommy, the waiter—made good as far as the length of her knife blade and the ...
— The Trimmed Lamp and Others • O Henry
... were the reserves which the High Command should have had ready to repair the broken line? And where were the plans for retreating to prepared positions only a short distance behind? It was well known, and indeed it used to be another boast of the High Command, that a local reverse would be of no great importance, seeing that there were no less than twelve prepared lines between the Front, as it then ran, and Udine. I have seen some of those lines with my ...
— With British Guns in Italy - A Tribute to Italian Achievement • Hugh Dalton
... other may be found stations of the deepest seclusion, fenced in by verdurous walls of insuperable forest heights, and presenting a limited scene of beauty—deep, solemn, noiseless, severely sequestered—and other stations of a magnificence so gorgeous as few estates in this island can boast, and of those few perhaps none in such close connection with a dwelling-house. Stepping out from the very windows of the drawing-room, you find yourself on a terrace which gives you the feeling of a 'specular height,' such as you might expect on Ararat, or might appropriately conceive ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey
... into things, or he'd never have made such a boast," Grandfather Mole declared. "When Grunty Pig digs, does he dig right ...
— The Tale of Grunty Pig - Slumber-Town Tales • Arthur Scott Bailey
... fighter on the side, and folks don't say anything too pleasant about my peaceful disposition around these settlements; I have n't any home, and mighty few friends, and the few I have got are nothing to boast about. I reckon there 's a cause for it all. So, considering everything, I 'm about the poorest proposition ever was heard of to start a young ladies' seminary. The Lord knows old Gillis was bad enough, but I 'm a damned sight worse. Now, some woman has got to take you in hand, and I reckon ...
— Bob Hampton of Placer • Randall Parrish
... scarecrow and a warning. And though—since I agree with the divine Petrarca, when he declares, quoting the 'Aulularia' of Plautus, who again was indebted for the truth to the supreme Greek intellect, 'Optimam foeminam nullam esse, alia licet alia pejor sit'—I cannot boast that thou art entirely lifted out of that lower category to which Nature assigned thee, nor even that in erudition thou art on a par with the more learned women of this age; thou art, nevertheless—yes, ...
— Romola • George Eliot
... peradventure, that my race dates from an elder date than these Norman nobles, who boast their robber-fathers. From the renowned Saxon Thane, who, free of hand and of cheer, won the name of Hildegardis, [Hildegardis, namely, old German, a person of noble or generous disposition. Wotton's "Baronetage," art. Hilyard, or Hildyard, of Pattrington.] our family took its rise. But under ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... your journey ran, And showed the best the world can boast: Now tell me, traveller, if you can, The place ...
— The Poems of Henry Van Dyke • Henry Van Dyke
... "I don't want to boast," he said; "but, in a way, I come nearer being good at this moment, than ever before ...
— The Triflers • Frederick Orin Bartlett
... God came among the conjurers and those soothsayers that you read of, Acts xix., and had prevailed with some of them to accept of the grace of Christ, the Holy Ghost records it with a boast, for that it would redound to his praise, saying, "And many of them that used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. ...
— The Jerusalem Sinner Saved • John Bunyan
... The same remark applies to all of the Australian capitals, none of which are deficient in hospitals, libraries, schools, asylums, art galleries, and charitable institutions generally. Few European cities of twice the size of these in Australia can boast a more complete organization in all that goes to ...
— Foot-prints of Travel - or, Journeyings in Many Lands • Maturin M. Ballou
... boast over, I should imagine. However, it came up naturally enough while we spoke of the sufferings of the American army during the winter. It is a sad thing the way this war has divided families. Has ...
— My Lady of Doubt • Randall Parrish
... more. For instance (a third and last idea out of the thousand that Ely arouses), Ely is dumb and yet oracular. The town and the hill tell you nothing till you have studied them in silence and for some considerable time. This boast is made by many towns, that they hold a secret. But Ely, which is rather a village than a town, has alone a true claim, the proof of which is this, that no one comes to Ely for a few hours and carries anything away, whereas no man lives in Ely for a year without beginning to ...
— Hills and the Sea • H. Belloc
... colonies in unsettled districts. In Rome he established a regular police service, organized the supply of grain and water, and continued, on a larger scale than ever, the public games. So many were his buildings in the capital city that he could boast he had "found Rome of brick and left it of marble." [6] Augustus was also very successful as a religious reformer. He restored numerous temples that had fallen into decay, revived the ancient sacrifices, and celebrated with pomp and majesty the festivals that had been neglected. These ...
— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER
... shine far up into Central Asia. The followers of Mohammed would look on with wonder, and perhaps, at first, with hatred and persecution; but new views of the Gospel would thus be forced upon them, and no longer would they be able to boast of the superiority ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson
... foregoing open revenge to encountering the jocose tanner's ridicule, and the gibes that would circulate at his expense throughout the country-side. But he cherished the grievance, and he resolved that Birt should rue it. He had expected that Birt would boast of having frightened him. He intended to admit that he had been a trifle startled, and in treating the matter thus lightly he hoped it would seem that the ...
— Down the Ravine • Charles Egbert Craddock (real name: Murfree, Mary Noailles)
... where is banish'd liberty exil'd, To Affrick deserts or to Scythia rockes, Or whereas siluer streaming Tanais is? Happy is India and Arabia blest, And all the bordering regions vpon Nile That neuer knew the name of Liberty, But we that boast of Brutes and Colatins, 340 And glory we expeld proud Tarquins name, Do greeue to loose, that we so long haue held. Why reckon we our yeares by Consuls names: And so long ruld in freedon, ...
— The Tragedy Of Caesar's Revenge • Anonymous
... like Dinertach's speech, But holy strains that to Heaven's gate reach. A front of flame without boast or pride, Yet a firm, fond mate for a fair ...
— A Celtic Psaltery • Alfred Perceval Graves |
